(no subject)

[lhexa]

I would've stuck this in with the next entry, but it doesn't fit. I was driving to the shop to do some laundry at around one o'clock, when I turned on the radio and discovered that one of my presets was playing some very strange trance music. I became engrossed in it, and when I stopped outside the shop I stayed inside the truck to listen to it. I then did more completely something that I have done before: the best way that I can describe it is letting my eyes relax, resulting in strange visual phenomena. They remain focused, and fixed on one spot (when my gaze moves, I always fail at this "relaxation"), though. Anyway, it happened to a greater extent this time, and several strange effects occurred. At first, as I looked at the glass of my windshield, it appeared to warp slightly, but very noticably (since the glass was somewhat dirty), as if a bubble a millimeter or so high had formed. This happened several times, but once I broke my gaze I couldn't repeat it. I was getting curious at this point, so I stared at the steering wheel instead and relaxed once more. My perception of its color changed, but this was just mundane after-image stuff, caused by the headlights of passing cars... but at one point the steering wheel (or rather the portion of it silhouetted against the windshield) became completely transparent. My eyes were perfectly focused and I could vaguely make out the details on the glass, but of course when I tried to tell whether I was seeing the glass through the wheel, it returned. This I was able to repeat a couple of times, but without enough detail on the glass to analyze what happened in the visual space where the wheel was. The last effect happened while I was repeating the weird transparency thing: my eyes were very relaxed, when a car with headlights on drove by, and in my view the windshield was dark and the steering wheel bright, like a negative image. Then some commercials came on and I went to do the laundry. I can consistenly repeat the "relaxation", but only to the point where the outlines of shapes in my peripheral vision start to shimmer. Anyone reading this have similar experiences?

Comments

[raki.livejournal.com]

Yes, I get strange visual effects all the time... I often get little shimmery spots appearing to hover outside everything else, like I'm looking at the world through a window or TV set and the spots are the real thing, but the rest isn't.
Sometimes if I focus on one thing I can block out everything else, and I won't be able to see it at all. This works best on a plain background like a ceiling or wall.
Sometimes if I look at glass or something shiny, the reflected light contains patterns I can't begin to describe. They're very beautiful.

My eyes are never 'relaxed' during this process, though.

Have you ever tried LSD? Apparently the visual effects you get with LSD break down your mental capacity to fill in the gaps of your visual input. So you get after-images with things like animals walking across your path, things moving, and (I forget the word) the mind compensating for seeing with two different eyes.
Similar things happen with sounds, too, apparently.

[lhexa.livejournal.com]

That sounds like it. "Relaxed" is a poor use to word, though, since my eyes start to ache after a minute or so. I called it relaxation because it seems that my retinas react less to changes in light, leading to that negative-image moment.

I intend to try LSD someday, but so far no.

[wickedorin.livejournal.com]

Hm. Now I'll have to try this...

I'm sure I get visual hallucinations all the time, but I like not to think of them that way. *grin* Whatever they are, I find value in them.